Conference Agenda

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1) In the first year a journal paper was completed, which was initiated during Dragon 3 within the project OPAC with the title “Oil spill detection by imaging radars: challenges and pitfalls” by Werner Alpers (University of Hamburg, Ben Holt (JPL/NASA), and Kan Zeng (Ocean University of China). It has been submitted to “Remote Sensing of Environment” and is presently undergoing a second review.

2) The Envisat and Sentinel-1 archives have been screened extensively for radar signatures of upwelling in Chinese waters and a large number of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images showing such signatures have been identified.

3) For several prominent cases SAR images showing radar signatures of upwelling have been compared with SST, Chl-a images and with sea surface wind field maps retrieved from Quikscat and ASCAT.

4) Upwelling events at the east coast of Hainan have been compared with model results obtained by the HAMSON model.

5) Upwelling induced by the typhoon Soudelor (July/August 2015), which was the strongest tropical cyclone of the 2015 Pacific typhoon season, has been studied, which gave rise to plankton bloom and an eddy-like Chl-a concentration pattern.

6) The Chinese Ph. D. student Zheen Zhang, who is supervised by Thomas Pohlmann of the University of Hamburg, will carry out in the next year simulations with the MITgcm model with the aim to show that internal waves can be generated by upwelling. The focus will be on the upwelling area at the east coast of Hainan.

7) No exchange of European and Chinese partners could be arranged in the first year of the project.

In-situ oceanographic measurements were made before and after the passage of Typhoon Wutip in September 2013 over the northern South China Sea (SCS). The surface geostrophic circulation over this region estimated from satellite altimetry data features a large-size anti-cyclonic eddy, a small-size cyclonic eddy, and smaller-size eddies during this period. Significant typhoon-induced changes occurred in the partial pressure of CO2 at the sea surface (pCO2sea) during Wutip. Before the passage of Wutip, pCO2sea was about 392.92±1.83, 390.31±0.50, and 393.04±4.31 μatm over the cyclonic eddy water, the anti-cyclonic eddy water, and areas outside two eddies, respectively. The entire study region showed a carbon source (1.31±0.46 mmol CO2 m-2 d-1) before Wutip. In the cyclonic eddy water after Wutip, high sea surface salinity (SSS), low sea surface temperature (SST), and high pCO2sea (413.05±7.56 μatm) made this area to be a carbon source (3.30±0.75 mmol CO2 m-2 d-1). In the anti-cyclonic eddy water after Wutip, both the SSS and SST were lower, pCO2sea was also lower (383.03±3.72 μatm), and this area became a carbon sink (-0.11±0.55 mmol CO2 m-2 d-1), in comparison with the pre-typhoon conditions. The typhoon-induced air-sea CO2 flux reached about 0.03 mmol CO2 m-2 d-1. Noticeable spatial variations in pCO2sea were affected mainly by the Wind-pimp Effects - typhoon-induced mixing/upwelling and vertical stratifications.

Our study suggests that the impact of the typhoon Wind-pimp on the local air-sea CO2 flux is highly correlated with the oceanographic conditions during the typhoon.

2.Upwelling effecting Distribution characteristics of phytoplankton size structure in the western SCS in summer

Driven by the southwest monsoon, an offshore jet is usually formed in western South China Sea (SCS) and sandwiched by a cyclonic eddy in the north and an anti-cyclonic eddy in the south, which effects ecosystem of the region. Using in-situ and satellite data in September 2014, the present study analyze the joint impact of this jet with two eddies on phytoplankton size structure in this region. The data showed that picophytoplankton (0.2-2µm) dominated the surface, taking average 76.7% of total chlorophyll. The contribution of nanophytoplankton (2-20µm) and microphytoplankton（20-200µm）in jet area was respectively higher and had a positive relationship with total chlorophyll. Comparatively higher percentage of microphytoplankton appeared in anti-cyclonic eddy in surface (av.10.3%) than in cyclonic eddy (av.3.6%). The results suggest that physical processes significantly influence summertime surface phytoplankton size structure in western South China Sea. Both jet and eddies can effect phytoplankton size structure by increasing the contribution of microphytoplankton. Surface horizontal advection of phytoplankton by northeastward jet form the coastal upwelling area is the main source of microphytoplankton in open sea. The interactions of convergence and divergence in eddies with jet form a chlorophyll front and increase the microphytoplankton component. Upwelling in the center cyclonic eddy bring up nutrients which raises microphytoplankton component.

Utilizing the vertical profiles of temperature and salinity data obtained by Argo floats and multi-source satellite remote sensing data, including sea surface temperature (SST) and sea surface wind fields, combined with the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Ⅱ reanalysis data, we analyzed changes of mixed layer depth (MLD) in the northeastern South China Sea (SCS) in responses to tropical cyclones Kalmaegi (typhoon) and Fung-Wong (tropical storm), which passed the SCS in succession in mid and late September 2014. The results indicate that the maximum net heat flux (upward into the air) increased from 170 to 400 W·m–2 at the air-sea interface, caused the maximum SST cooling of 3℃ by the “wind pump” effect after Kalmaegi and Fung-Wong passed through. The “cold wake” induced by Kalmaegi lasted for more than 10 days thanks to the following tropical storm Fung-Wong, indicating the effect of superposition in SST cooling. MLD was deepened from 23 to 50 m in the “cold wake” one day after Kalmaegi passed by. MLD was deepened from 31 to 91 m eight hours after Fung-Wong passed by, due to the coastal upwelling induced by offshore Ekman transport driven by wind stress at the southwestern of Taiwan Island. After the tropical cyclones passed by, salinity profile in the mixed layer showed uniformity later than temperature profile, and recovered earlier than temperature profile, revealing the time lag in mixed layer responses. For the spatial variation response to the two tropical cyclones, the changes of SST and MLD were larger on the right-hand side of the tropical cyclones (along the moving directions of tropical cyclones) than on the left-hand side. The uneven deepening even shallowing in MLD in the cold wake may reveal that different depths of deep cold water uplifted by the vertical current switch between upwelling and downwelling in the Ekman layer due to the change of Ekman pumping velocity

In the surface layer of the ocean, Sea Surface Temperature (SST) is the most important parameter, which is widely applied for studying water masses, air-sea interaction, marine ecosystem and environment, and other subjects. In decades, a great many satellites with thermal infrared sensors have been launched and huge thermal infrared remote sensing data were collected for detection of SST. With the continuous improvement on accuracy, the satellite remote sensing technique has become the dominant approach for SST detection.

In this report, the thermal infrared data collected by FY-3B were employed for retrieval of SST in the South China Sea. FY-3B is one of the second generation of Chinese meteorological satellite on polar orbit, it has VIRR (Visible Infrared Radiometer) sensor with 10 bands, of which, band 4 covers 10.3~11.3um and band 5 covers 11.5~12.5um, similar to NOAA/AVHRR.

The ship-measured SST dataset in 2011 and 2012 were collected and totally 20607 (of which 11419 in daytime and 9188 in nighttime) of the ship-measured SSTs were selected on consideration of the quality, the measurement time and the measurement location matching with cloudy-free Fy-3B data. Based on the well matched ship-measured SST and FY-3B VIRR data, a non-linear SST (NLSST) algorithm was developed and applied for retrieval of SST in the South China Sea. The monthly mean SST distribution image maps of South China Sea were integrated. The monthly mean SST image maps show that the maximum monthly mean SST occurs in June, although in July and August there is a stronger solar heating. It possibly due to the monsoon-induced mixing, which results in lower SST.

Sentinel-1 A & B perform acquisitions over Taiwan island. To date, this data are not routinely processed up to Level-2 OCN product by Sentinel-1 ESA PDGS. This paper considers the complete archive of Sentinel-1 data acquired over Taiwan and proposes a new algorithm for wind inversion in coastal areas. It relies on a two steps process. The first one aims at extracting wind direction and filtering out non-wind related signatures in both co- and cross- polarized channels. The second one combines these information and the radar cross-section from the two channels to retrieve wind speed and direction at high resolution.

The complete Sentinel-1 SAR archive is processed with this new algorithm. Results are presented and will be made available to the public. The buoys network around Taiwan island is used as reference for the ocean surface wind. SAR wind speed and direction are compared to in-situ buoys and atmospheric model winds. The choice of the GMF to be used for wind inversion is discussed.

The occurrence and the location of the non-wind signature are also presented and tentatively related to other oceanic or meteorological phenomena such as rain or bloom.

During summer 2016, ESA set up SHOC (for Satellite Hurricane Observations Campaign) campaign dedicated to hurricane observations with Sentinel-1 SAR in both VV and VH polarizations acquired in wide swath modes. Among the 70 Sentinel-1 passes scheduled by ESA mission planning team, more than 20 observations over hurricane eyes were acquired and Tropical Cyclones (TC) were captured at different development stages. The sensitivity difference of VH and VV Normalized Radar Cross Section (NRCS) to the response of the ocean surface to tropical cyclones is analyzed. In particular, during Lester hurricane most intense phase (when the track files indicates wind speeds of 120 knots), the sensitivity of the VH-NRCS computed at 3-km resolution is found to be more than 3.5 times larger than in VV. In addition, taking opportunity of SAR high resolution, we also show that the decrease in resolution (up to 25 km) does not change dramatically the sensitivity difference between VV and VH polarizations. This clearly opens perspectives for MetOp-SG SCA, the next generation C-band scatterometer with co- and cross-polarization capability. VV and VH channels are combined to get ocean surface wind vectors from Sentinel-1 dual-polarized Level-1 products. SAR winds are compared at 40-km resolution against L-Band SMAP radiometer winds with co-locations less than 30 minutes. The wind speed obtained using both VH and VV polarization is found to be more consistent with SMAP than wind obtained in co-polarization for wind speeds larger than 25 m/s. Based on radiometer winds, a new GMF (MS1A) is proposed. It improves the consistency between 40-km SAR winds and SMAP winds. The method is applied to Megi and Lyonrock Typhoon and results presented in this paper.